Putin urges Gazprom to secure gas supplies to Europe

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that Gazprom should
take great effort to ensure natural gas exports to Europe, which is
experiencing extreme cold temperatures, RIA-Novosti reports.
Faced with severe weather conditions, some EU states complained earlier
this week that they are receiving less gas from Russia than expected,
however, Gazprom, which supplies a quarter of Europe's gas imports, said it
is delivering as much gas as it can under current contracts.
 “I am asking you to make a real effort to supply the demands of our
foreign partners, given that the top priority of our energy companies,
including Gazprom, is to supply Russian customers,” RIA-Novosti quotes
Putin at a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin and Gazprom
Deputy Chairmen Alexander Medvedev and Andrei Kruglov. Kruglov told
the prime minister that Gazprom was not able to increase gas deliveries to Europe.
According to European Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzner, Russia
reduced gas deliveries to nine European countries as of Wednesday and EU
states have imported gas from other suppliers and are using stored volumes.
Putin said this proves the importance and relevance of the South Stream and
Nord Stream pipelines.